Geocomputation: A Practical Primer (Spatial Analytics and GIS) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1446272931 ISBN 13: 9781446272930

Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2015

Synopsis

"Brunsdon and Singleton offer a unique contribution to the zeitgeist of geocomputation... The authors offer a wide array of applications brought by leading scholars in the field of Geographic Information Science, spatial analysis and spatial modelling. The role of new techniques that are revolutionizing the usage of geocomputation is well explored and the systematic approach the book adopts in envisioning available tools is appropriately constructed. This book is a great contribution for an advancing field, and a much welcomed achievement for the growth of a new kind of spatial science."
- Eric Vaz Director of the Laboratory for Geocomputation, Ryerson University

?Geocomputation is the use of software and computing power to solve complex spatial problems. It is gaining increasing importance in the era of the ‘big data’ revolution, of ‘smart cities’, of crowdsourced data, and of associated applications for viewing and managing data geographically - like Google Maps. This student focused book:

• Provides a selection of practical examples of geocomputational techniques and ‘hot topics’ written by world leading practitioners.
• Integrates supporting materials in each chapter, such as code and data, enabling readers to work through the examples themselves.

Chapters provide highly applied and practical discussions of:

• Visualisation and exploratory spatial data analysis
• Space time modelling
• Spatial algorithms
• Spatial regression and statistics
• Enabling interactions through the use of neogeography

All chapters are uniform in design and each includes an introduction, case studies, conclusions - drawing together the generalities of the introduction and specific findings from the case study application – and guidance for further reading.

This accessible text has been specifically designed for those readers who are new to Geocomputation as an area of research, showing how complex real-world problems can be solved through the integration of technology, data, and geocomputational methods. This is the applied primer for Geocomputation in the social sciences.

About this title

About the Author

Chris Brunsdon is Professor of Geocomputation at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. He studied Mathematics at the University of Durham and Medical Statistics at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne,  and has worked in a number of universities, holding the Chair in Human Geography at Liverpool University before taking up his current position.  His research interests are in health, crime and environmental data analysis,  and in the development of spatial analytical tools,  including Geographically Weighted Regression approach.  He also has interests in the software tools used to develop such approaches,  including R.

Alex Singleton is Professor of Geographic Information Science at the University of Liverpool, where he entered as a lecturer in 2010. He holds a BSc (Hons) Geography from the University of Manchester and a PhD from University College London. To date, his research income totals around £15m, with two career highlights including the ESRC funded Consumer Data Research Centre; and the recently awarded ESRC Centre for Doctoral Training in New Forms of Data. Alex’s research is embedded within the Geographic Data Science Lab (geographicdatascience.com) and concerns various aspects of urban analytics. In particular, his work has extended a tradition of area classification within Geography where he has developed an empirically informed critique of the ways in which geodemographic methods can be refined for effective yet ethical use in public resource allocation applications. 

Review

This is a vital primer to what is ‘Big’ about geocomputation: new data (and lots of them), innovative methods of analysis, new geographic information technologies and, above all, an over-arching rethink of how we represent geography. It provides an important and strategic contribution to contemporary scientific geography and data analytics.

Author: Paul Longley, Professor of Geographic Information Science

Brunsdon and Singleton offer a unique contribution to the zeitgeist of geocomputation. Geocomputation as a ubiquitous and quite novel field, is explored by the authors in a deductive and highly constructive fashion. The authors offer a wide array of applications brought by leading scholars in the field of Geographic Information Science, spatial analysis and spatial modelling. The role of new techniques that are revolutionizing the usage of geocomputation is well explored and the systematic approach the book adopts in envisioning available tools is appropriately constructed. This book is a great contribution for an advancing field, and a much welcomed achievement for the growth of a new kind of spatial science.
Author: Eric Vaz

Edition details

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1446272931
• ISBN 13: 9781446272930
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 392
• Editor: Brunsdon Chris, Singleton Alex David